The Dance
by Insomniac247
Summary: SasuSaku It was one dance with a mysterious dark stranger, but it had felt like so much more.


**Disclaimer**: Being the property and creation of Kishimoto Masashi, the manga, anime, and name Naruto are not mine. I own none of the characters or their names mentioned in this story. All credit goes to Masashi, because without him this story would not exist.

_"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."_-**Martha Graham**

_"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."_-**George Bernard Shaw**

Special Thanks to fellow author, Raina1, for beta-ing this for me!

**The Dance**

From the corner of her eye, Sakura saw her teacher purse her lips in dissatisfaction. Dammit. Why couldn't she get this stupid dance right? "You're supposed to be _seductive_ Sakura. It's the dance of love for cryin' out loud."

Looking chastised, Sakura glanced to her blonde partner. The crimson blush was just leaving his face. 'Because Tsunade said she was supposed to be seductive?' Only moments ago he looked like he was going to throw her to the floor and have his way with her, and _now_ he looked bashful? Sakura shook her head in wonder.

"Naruto you look too eager." Tsunade sounded out. "You're trying to _resist_ Sakura, but she's being _very_ persuasive… or _supposed_ to be anyway. She actually looks like she wants to buy you an ice cream and you look like a sex-starved heathen." Both dancers blushed at that.

So basically they were performing this dance very poorly. Who was she kidding? They sucked. "It's been four weeks! Four weeks and you've not improved a bit with your chemistry. You're the best of friends, I can see that! I need _more _from you." Tsunade was flailing her arms in obvious irritation. "You've mastered the jive, the quickstep, the foxtrot, the waltz…" She huffed out. "Perhaps it was a mistake to sign you up for the Latin dances."

"Tsunade-sama! _Tsunade-sama!_" 

Sakura watched Shizune, her instructor's assistant, bull-ass through the door, waving and yelling as if Tsunade were standing in the middle of a large crowd; never mind that she was only a few feet away in the middle of a huge echoing dance studio. The assistant whispered in the instructor's ear, Tsunade smiled and called for a break. Sakura sighed, grateful to whoever had interrupted their practice. She plopped herself on the floor, not wanting to take the twenty or so steps required to reach a chair. Legs straight in front of her, she leaned back on her hands to rest.

"Here's some water Sakura-chan." Naruto gave her a weak smile, knowing how awful she was feeling. He loved to dance, but not like Sakura. She was absolutely obsessed with it. She lived and breathed it. When it came to all the dances they'd performed before there wasn't a soul that could compare to his pink-haired partner. She was the embodiment of fluidity and grace. This not performing up to par was a new thing for her, and he could see the irritation and anger etched across her face.

Sakura gratefully took the water bottle from her companion. Why was this dance so damned hard for her? She'd won medal after medal for her dancing skills; hell she was considered one of the best in the entire country of Fire…

She groaned, flopping on the floor to stare up at the ceiling. She was glad Naruto wasn't flashing his usual bright as a spotlight grin. She wasn't in the mood. She did _not_ fail at dancing. She didn't fail at _anything_. She refused. She refused to fail. "Naruto! Again!" She commanded, pushing herself to her feet.

Naruto heard her tone of voice. It was laced with a determined edge, and though she'd only said two words, she'd meant so much more. He swallowed hard, moving toward her. God he was tired, but he knew better than to even tentatively suggest to Sakura that they utilize this break. She was liable to break him in half. Not too many people that knew Sakura would dare defy her, even in the smallest tiniest way. Therefore Naruto stifled his groan, plastered a smile on his face and grabbed his partner's hand.

Sasuke silently laughed at the way the blonde jumped like a puppy pleased to be noticed by its master when the pink haired girl barked an order at him. 'Idiot.' Well she did possess a strong air of command. He could see where some might think her intimidating. He smiled.

He watched the pink-haired girl sachet across the dance floor, her skirt swaying with the sensual movements of her hips. 'Damn.' He found her backside rather hypnotizing.

"What's her name?" He asked.

"Sakura."

"Sakura…" He whispered, tasting her name on his tongue. 'Cherry blossom.' His eyes traveled up and down the curves of her long legs.

"You want me to dance with her?" He tore his eyes from the pink-haired vixen to meet his aunt's.

"Please Sasuke, just once. It would be a huge help to me. You could help Naruto out a bit, though he's further along than she is. I would have you demonstrate with Hinata but you didn't bring the girl with you." Sasuke shrugged. "So just demonstrate to him what he needs to do, what his part looks like."

Sasuke was silent a moment, watching the two perform the steps. Tsunade was right. They needed help. It wasn't the steps or the movements they were getting wrong so much as the emotion, the chemistry, the _meaning_ of the dance.

'It's because she's dancing with a besotted puppy.' A woman like that needs… _more_. Without a word to his aunt Sasuke began a steady dominant walk toward the couple. Tsunade scrambled to put on music. "Don't mind me." She called out to her students as the music started. Naruto and Sakura did exactly as their teacher commanded and continued their dance.

Sakura gave Naruto her feared what-the-hell-are-you-doing look when he stepped away from her, eyes staring over her shoulder. She opened her mouth to give him what-for when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled. She fell back against a warm hard body.

She gasped glancing over her shoulder to meet with the darkest most intense eyes she'd ever seen in her life. He was like something from a horror novel, beautiful, dark, ethereal, and _extremely_ dangerous. Her instincts screamed for her to run, but her senses yelled for more.

She felt his hold on her tighten, and he gave her a jerk, a silent command. Something about the way he held her screamed for her to obey, demanded she allow herself be dominated.

'Nobody dominates Haruno Sakura.' She thought, turning to rip herself away from the new stranger, but he held fast. "Dance." He breathed against her ear, allowing his lips the barest brush against her ear, swaying his hips against hers.

'That voice.' Sakura's eyes grew lazy, reveling in the sound of that voice, low… hypnotizing… "_Dance_ for me." ...rich… "Dance _with_ me." ..._seductive_. "Dance with me Sakura." Her name slid from his mouth like liquid velvet.

Sakura responded, rolling her hips indecently to the ethnic roll of the music, feeling his inner thigh against her outer as she gyrated against him. He radiated warmth. She felt his hand caress her thigh and she swallowed hard.

Sakura felt his hand grasp hers. Heat coursed through her at the feel of flesh against flesh. If this was what holding hands was like with him a kiss must be deadly. He tangled his fingers with hers, lifting her hand until she felt his deliciously black hair beneath her probing fingers. She buried her hand in his hair, grasping handfuls in attempt to steady herself. He was making her dizzy.

She closed her eyes, leaning back against the dark stranger with the sinful eyes. His fingers left hers, tracing the line of her arm, down her side, teasing the side of her breast, her waist, her hips… His palm traveled indecently slow as it caressed her body, pressed against her curves, memorizing every part of her it touched. She heard and felt him sigh against her ear, and she involuntarily rolled her head to the side, begging for that searing mouth to explore her skin. God what would that mouth feel like against her bared flesh? She bit her lip to stifle a moan.

He pushed her away and her eyes lit with an angry inner fire. She would _not_ be denied. She gave a low, almost imperceptible growl. Sasuke smiled wickedly. She was just like he thought: a tigress, a vixen, a spitfire… She was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen.

Sakura smiled sensually, beckoning him back, curling her finger for him to come to her. She felt alive. The music coursed through her veins. She felt its beat thrumming through her body, but she saw only black eyes - she never took her eyes from his. She felt possessed, overtaken.

Sasuke loved the playful fire that lit her eyes. She was begging him to take her and he wanted to… desperately. He wanted those sinfully curved hips between the silk sheets of his bed. He wanted her indecently naked and spread gloriously before him. Her soft pink hair splayed over midnight blue silk. He grasped her hand and viciously pulled her to him, her back to his chest. He buried his face in her hair. "Sakura." He breathed out, every syllable a desire to undress her. She shivered, shimmying down the length of his body. 

He stepped away from her, turning his back to her, walking away. She sat crumpled on the floor, alone, trying to control her desire for him. Hell, she wanted him so bad she couldn't even see straight.

He appeared before her, she reached for him, trying in vain to touch him. He looked down on her with heated angry eyes, like she was a nymph bewitching him against his will. He grabbed her hands, pulling her into the air, holding her against him.

Sakura was airborne, the only thing that was holding her were his strong arms. She wrapped her own arms around his neck, once again searching out his eyes. She roved the sharp angles of his face, his lips, those impossibly dark orbs… Their lips were scant centimeters apart. Both were panting, hot breath ghosting over sensitive skin, eyes half lidded with desire. His hands twined in her hair, held either side of her face… His eyes burned with some dark unspoken desire, so much so she thought he might devour her. Her thighs gripped one of his, as his thumb traced her bottom lip. Unabashedly she mentally begged him to kiss her, too paralyzed by his hell-spawn depths to do the deed herself.

He looked for all the world like he'd give in to her, give her what she was silently begging for. His hands fell from her face, and she felt each of his fingers press into her flesh as his hands grasped her shoulders. His look turned fierce, like a man awakening from a spell. He pushed her down the length of his body. She obeyed; letting her palms glide down the length of his torso as she slid indecently down the hard muscles of his dancer-toned body. And the music stopped…

Naruto and Tsunade stood staring gape mouthed at the two dancers. Tsunade snapped her mouth shut. "Well, that was almost as good as with Hinata. Not quite mind you, but almost." She waggled her finger at her nephew. She cleared her throat glancing over at Naruto who still stood open-mouthed and flushed.

Sakura was still on the floor, her fingers unconsciously fisted in the dark haired man's shirt. She was still staring up at him, but his eyes had left her for her teacher. 'What the hell just happened?' She wondered, feeling heat rise to her cheeks at the thoughts that had been roaming through her head. Hell, they were _still_ floating in her head, divesting the man of the shirt she so shamelessly clutched, imagining his lips against hers, the feel of his tongue against hers… She didn't even know his name, had never met him before, but she couldn't bring herself to regret her wanton thoughts.

Tsunade clapped her hands twice for attention. "Now Naruto, that is what I expect from you. Sakura… you were… _perfect_." She beamed.

'I was perfect?' _'I was perfect!'_ She had done the dance perfectly. She threw a beaming smile at the stranger that had led her so easily through the dance she'd struggled so hard with. He gave her a nod, thanked her for the dance, and began walking away.

Naruto snapped out of his shocked stupor and shot a venomous glare at the dark haired man. Sasuke curled his lip in a sneer, as if the sight of the blonde left an awful taste in his mouth. Naruto glared harder with narrowed I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass eyes.

He didn't like anyone else touching his Sakura like that. He knew it was just a dance and that technically Sakura was only a friend... but he found himself extremely bothered. He couldn't believe that what he just witnessed was the same dance he'd been performing with the pink haired girl for a month now. Hell, he had a hard time believing what he'd just witnessed _was_ a dance. It certainly had seemed like more.

Sakura watched the dark haired man walk further away from her and closer to the door that would lead him away from her. Inwardly she was panicking, near sobbing. It was bizzare, because she couldn't place what the hell was going on with her.

_Click._

The door clicked softly shut but it echoed like a thunderclap in Sakura's mind. She felt an awful ache in her chest. It was hard to breathe. 'What the hell?' She thought, wondering at the feeling of doom that had settled over her as the door closed behind him, taking him from her sight.

"Come on Sakura. You must practice the dance with Naruto now." Tsunade did that annoying clapping thing again snapping Sakura out of her thoughts. God her teacher could be irritating. "Yeah. Yeah." She scowled, pushing herself off the floor. 'Back to the grind.' She thought, stepping up to Naruto.

_One year later…_

"Beautiful Sakura! Naruto, you've come a long way. Maybe this year we'll take first place in the Latin dances!" Tsunade was beaming. Her teacher's praises were a distant mumble as she recalled the dance she'd had with the stranger. She imagined his touch, his voice … Every day she had relived that dance and duplicated it with Naruto, but it was always _his_ eyes she imagined, _his_ hands she felt…

Sakura watched to door, wondering if that dark haired stranger might once again grace this studio with a visit. She'd watched for him every day for the past year, however she never heard a word about him or saw him again.

She closed her eyes, resigning herself to the fact that he was gone from her forever. She glanced at the door one last time in farewell to the dark eyed man before tuning back into her teachers words. 'And I never even knew his name...'


End file.
